It took a little more time than it would normally but Mia walked back to her home. Each step awaking her muscles and making it easier. The collar with Onyx’s mana stone was also very gently absorbing some of her mana.
Once she got home her entire family jumped her. Mei and Elana gave her very warm hugs. Her brothers were visibly worried about her bandages but also hugged her warmly. Liza just gave her a few pats on her head before going to the kitchen. Lin gave her a lot of kisses along with a hug. Lastly, her father took her in his arms and Mia knew that nothing she said or did would make her dad put her down.
They all sat in the living room and just began to talk with Mia about what she lost in the last two weeks.
Elana learned extreme basic magic. She can somewhat clean a small target or produce small quantities of fire or water. Mei found a strange cookbook that had various recipes from all around the world. Her boss brought the book on the condition that she learned and cooked those recipes to the best of her ability, even creating local variants if possible. She and Mia got really excited when she said that in the book there was a recipe on how to make chocolate. Lin and Liza explained how they were shooing away people trying to ‘introduce’ their sons, daughters, nieces, grandsons,etc… to Mia. As it turns out, the good part of what happened was known to the public and Mia was something of a minor celebrity. Her father showed clear signs of distress, hugging Mia a little more tightly, when Lin and Liza mentioned boys.
Her brothers talked about how they ran ragged during the last few weeks, going as far as having to do work outside the city. A lot of somewhat important people began to come to Azuria and any help available was help used.
They all joked a little, drank some tea and ate biscuits but suddenly Mia noticed something.
“What did you do, father?” Mia asked her dad.
“I got a nice little vacation…” He said, nervously.
“Why?” Mia innocently asked.
“Errr...”
“Dad broke a part of the castle wall.” Choi said.
“Then he broke a part of a Royal Guard.” Kai said.
“Then he broke the castle gate before your mother stopped him from being stupid.” Liza said, making fun of Huang.
“Dad, you shouldn’t break other people's stuff!” Mia said, genuinely angry, or at least as much as a kid could be.
“...You are right, I was stupid.” Huang said warmly but seriously.
“Why did you do that?”
“Because nobody would tell me who hurt my precious daughter. But now I know and I will deal with them so they will never hurt you anymore.” Huang said confidently while giving Mia a big smile, sadly the response wasn’t what anyone was expecting.
So far, Mia was genuinely happy. Yes, she was somewhat sad inside but she had way more stuff to be happy about so there was no reason to be sad on the outside. But once her father told that she was going after The Steps it completely changed. Panic like no other gripped her heart.
“Please, please don’t go! I don’t want to lose you!” Mia said in her panic, begging her father to not go. “I promise to get stronger and protect me and you, please don’t go!” Mia begged as she shook. Small flames began to appear around her and a single panic glare from Marry was enough for everyone to get what was happening. She quickly hugged Mia along with Huang.
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“Alright, alright! I promise to not do anything dangerous. I will not go away! Your mother will make sure of it.” Huang said calmly, even if he was a little emotional himself. It took a a minute or two but Mia calmed down once she got reassured by everyone. No one was burned.
The episode sapped any energy Mia had and soon enough she was asleep. Huang, Marry and Lin brought her to her room where they observed her for a few minutes. Even asleep she seemed to want something. She was holding the necklace that would supposedly revive Onyx but she was still grasping for him. They always slept together after all.
Lin managed to skillfully put what was basically a dog plushy between Mia arms that at least for the moment seemed to calm the girl down.
With Mia now calm and asleep, everyone got back to the first floor where Liza was now serving some calming tea to everyone besides herself. She had cheap booze for herself for some reason.
“Is she alright?” Mei asked.
“I want to say yes because I know what exactly you are asking about but I can’t, she isn’t…” Marry said with a mix of anger and sadness in her voice.
“I will grind them to dust! How dare they do that to our Mia!” Huang said angrily at the situation. Kai and Choi seemed to agree with their father as they clearly looked very angry at how Mia began to act once even an allusion to the group that hurt her was said.
“Stop being idiots! No talkies about vendettas in this house while Mia is here!” Lin said angrily at the men. They seemed to understand the message.
“Yes. This house is to be her happy place. This will be her fortress of love…But outside? Away from her? Do everything you can!” Marry said very coldly but very angrily at the same time. “Huang, my love, the first thing I truly asked of you was love and you never stop giving it to me so far but now I have another request. Hunt them! Hurt them! None of you will ever be able to feel it but there is a dark hand grasping Mia’s heart and it hurts. She shouldn't have it and the people who put it there deserve every punishment imaginable. Our sweet little girl is never coming back, not fully.” Marry explained.
There was a silent agreement. Everyone finished their drinks and did their best to continue like normal. Mia needed it.
Later, at Jin’s Dojo
“Didn’t expect you here today.” Jin said to Huang as the man entered the place.
“Nor I.” He said as he walked to ‘his’ area and began a form of meditative stance training where he was using a training lance very slowly.
“I managed to increase his training today, again. Wish all my disciples were that masochistic. Not that you don’t get worse.” Jin said as he used a spell that increased the gravity around Huang a hundred fold.
“The boy needs to be infinitely better if he hopes I will allow him to be with my baby girl!”
“She will probably be single forever if you continue on that path.”
“I will never allow anyone who is weaker than me to do my duty of protecting her! I already failed twice! I will not fail a third time!”
“The way things are going I don’t see many people being eligible in the future.” Jin added.
A few minutes later Klaws, Looking like he was sweating blood, arrive from a side door into the dojo.
“I am done.” He said firmly as he tried his best to stay standing.
“Why don’t you give up brat!? You can still be her friend but you will never amount to anything if that is all you can handle? What is that? 5, 6 times normal gravity?” Huang said as he taunted Klaws.
“I will get stronger and not even you will get in my way!” Klaws said back, very passionately.
“Seven times the standard.” Jin added.
“Make it ten! I can handle it.” Klaws said to Jin
“Let’s go more calmly over stuff, shall we?”
“I said ten!” Klaw shouted. Jin just sighed and altered the spell around the boy. In a moment he went from barely standing straight to kissing the ground and bleeding.
“Get up you idiot! If you die she will be sad and I will kill you if she is sad because of your stupidity!” Huang shouted at Klaws. As for the boy, he angrily looked at Huang, stood up and began to do what he was doing before. Running around the dojo.
“You didn’t even have to beat him up this time. I think you are evolving.” Jin said semi-sarcastically.
“Nobody is allowed to make my daughter sad! Not him, not you, not the king, nobody!” Huang firmly said.
“Well, the world would be a better place if every father was like you… Now, once you finish warming up we can continue your training. The healers are readily available so losing an arm or two will not be a problem today.”
Huang just smiled and continued. He would get stronger. Nobody would mess with his family ever again.